Author to speak this week at library

By Laura CatoeTimes Staff Writer

Sunday

Aug 30, 2009 at 8:06 PMAug 30, 2009 at 8:07 PM

Contemporary fantasist author Peter Beagle will be at the Gadsden Public Library Thursday for “Coffee and Crumpets.”

Contemporary fantasist author Peter Beagle will be at the Gadsden Public Library Thursday for “Coffee and Crumpets.” The author will begin a reading at 6 p.m. in the Lena Martin Room; he will be available for questions afterward.Beagle is best known for his novel “The Last Unicorn,” which was turned into an animated film in 1982 featuring the voices of Mia Farrow, Alan Arkin and Jeff Bridges. It is the tale of a unicorn who discovers she is the last in the world and must set off to find out what happened to the rest of her kind. “The Last Unicorn” will be September’s featured title for the library’s Not For Children Only Book Club. The club will meet at noon Sept. 16 in the Children’s Department.Julie Dobbins, an administrative assistant at the library, said she is excited to have Beagle return to Gadsden this year. “Last year went very well and the crowd that came definitely enjoyed getting to meet him,” Dobbins said.“He’s very personable and kind — not at all what you would expect from an author with his credentials. He’s just an incredible man. An evening spent with Peter S. Beagle is certainly time well spent.”In March, Beagle published a collection of short fictions titled “We Never Talk About My Brother.” He is publishing installments of “The 52/50 Project.”Beagle’s manager, Connor Cochran, suggested Beagle publish a song or poem once a week for a year to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the sale of his first book, “A Fine and Private Place,” in 1959. Thus “The 52/50 Project” was born. The first installment came out in April, the month Beagle celebrated his 70th birthday. Now more than a third of the way through the 52 weeks, Beagle has issued elegies, sea chanteys, drinking songs, sonnets and more. To see excerpts from the project, visit www.conlanpress.com/html/52-50.html.Copies of Beagle’s books will be available for purchase. The event is free to the public. For additional information, call Dobbins at 549-4699, ext. 100.

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